Kim Lane Scheppele’s work serves as a vital warning for the modern age. She reminds us that a constitution is only as strong as the people’s willingness to defend its spirit, not just its text. When law becomes a weapon for those in power rather than a shield for the powerless, democracy is already in its twilight.
Unlike the 20th-century model of the coup d'état—where tanks roll into the capital and the constitution is suspended—modern autocrats (like Viktor Orbán in Hungary or Vladimir Putin in Russia) use the existing legal system to dismantle democracy. autocratic legalism kim lane scheppele upd
Scheppele's framework has not been without its critics. Some scholars argue that it gives too much weight to formal legality at the expense of substantive constitutional values. A 2024 Verfassungsblog article argued that the concept of autocratic legalism risks setting formal and substantive requirements of constitutionalism against each other, creating the "wrong impression that autocrats respect the formal requirements of constitutionalism when, in actuality, they do not". The author pointed to Hungary as an example: many of Orbán's laws were enacted in violation of the procedural requirements of the rule of law, suggesting that even the façade of legality may be absent. Kim Lane Scheppele’s work serves as a vital
In the early 21st century, a disturbing trend emerged in global politics: authoritarian leaders ceased to be the exceptions to the rule of law and began to exploit it. The age of the military coup, characterized by tanks in the street and the suspension of constitutions, has largely given way to a more insidious phenomenon—the stealth takeover. At the forefront of analyzing this shift is legal sociologist Kim Lane Scheppele, whose concept of "autocratic legalism" provides the definitive framework for understanding how modern demagogues dismantle democracy using the very tools designed to protect it. Unlike the 20th-century model of the coup d'état—where
Example C — Russia (1990s–present; Vladimir Putin)
Scheppele was awarded the Dorothy Tapper Goldman Guggenheim Constitutional Studies Fellowship, a recognition of her work's growing importance. The fellowship description noted that "since 2010, she has tracked the rise of autocratic legalism first in Hungary and then beyond".